An Ode to Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

It is not often that you start admiring a sporting icon so much that you almost feel like personally having a lein on his achievements as if it were to add to your own self esteem.

Sachin is one such sporting icon for not just me but for arguably a thumping majority of cricket followers not just in India but across every nation this game has permeated itself.

I still remember that when he was debuting at the age of Sixteen, I was myself debuting as a teenager.

By then I had already soaked in enough of cricketing wisdom from my own family patriarchs and gully cricket seniors in my colony, to show a discerning taste of who had a stamp of permanent class and who was devoid of it.

At that tender age of cricketing viewership itself I was engulfed with needless worries of what will happen to my interest in cricket should a Gavaskar or Kapil Dev or Mohinder or Srikanth were to suddenly retire.

That is when Sachin burst onto the scene to take not just my breath away but with it all my cricketing worries forever or so it seemed till yesterday when I sadly countenanced the distasteful fact that he will no longer be donning the color or emblem of India.

I am mature enough to know the difference that playing cricket for India is not the same as representing the country in an Olympic event and that BCCI is just a club and not the ministry of Sport.

But the argument that Sachin did not represent India because of this trivia is as silly as me considering myself worthless and not having contributed to India’s GDP just because I never served in a Government Job.

Yes, I am fully guilty of several times forgetting my "fanhood" with him and judging him by the results he was part of or not part of. But I know that deep down, it was my unconditional love for his talent that wanted him to be part of every successful statistic in the game of cricket.

I even wanted him to retire earlier. That was not because I had had enough of seeing him. It was because the legion of people who wanted him to go became increasingly louder and I could not keep coming to terms with the success of the “See, I told you” gang grow even an inch more.

Again not that I was sure of such people’s successful predictions. In fact some of his most mature and successful innings have come in 2010 and 2011. 

Just in case some people think I am hallucinating here

1. 7 test tons in 2010 alone. [that left Ponting, who was snapping at his heels, high and dry]
2. The first ever 200 in ODI  [almost like a Roger Bannister record of a mile under 4 minutes] that too against a potent bowling attack like SA, in 2010
3. 175 against Australia [in Hyderabad chasing 350] again in 2010 and 
4. 2 World Cup centuries [albeit in vain] in 2011 

Why I go back to 2010-2011 is not because it is in the recent past but mainly because the impatience for his retirement started as way back as 2010 itself.

The more a player plays, the more the probability of failure (with perhaps an equal probability of success). 

Because of the pedigree of Sachin (both earned and vested) each failure would be magnified by the same proportion of his legendary stature in the game while his success would be immediately ratified by the same stature as something just expected out of him as a basic achievement.

And then there is this economic theory to contend with. That he is blocking the chance of another youngster’s career. As if playing for Indian eleven is the only way a cricketer makes a livelihood these days. 

In fact the only cricketing purpose I see in IPL is its ability to give so many budding Indian cricketers a livelihood despite never being able to play for India. And we have had IPL since 2008 itself, which naturally means Sachin has been liberated of this economic sin in 2008 itself.

I started writing this piece automatically as I was deeply moved inside by his decision to retire from the game. I have no specific sequence in my mind to jot down what he meant to me and my psyche.

To me Sachin represented myself walking down the aisle of the pavilion to play an innings for India. When I used to watch him bat, there were several times I was numbed into thinking that this is a video game where I could just pick the controls from him and play the innings on his behalf.

Every run he scored and every ball he faced used to feel as if it was going into my personal score book. One may wonder whether I felt the same about his bank balance, but thankfully self-pride took over the moment the game ended for the day.

And to me mostly the game ended with Sachin’s innings. 

I would have perhaps been a very horrible team player had I been a cricketer myself as my interest would have been in only my score. But I had the luxury of being a Fan to think this way (Just like others misuse it to throw brickbats at this legend).

If I were to review my cricketing viewership in milestones:

•  Indian cricket reached a new peak in 1983 as world champions only to be immediately humbled 5-0 by West Indies the following year on home soil.
• We as fans took the 1983 victory with a huge pinch of salt till our next arm candy was a lanky lad called Mohd. Azharuddin who scored a hatrick of centuries on debut and revived our faith in our team’s stature.
• Our stature in the world arena was again catapulted with the 1985 WCC victory in Australia (just that I would have loved K. Srikanth to have taken the Audi home and not Shastri)
• Followed by a sensational win over Pakistan in Sharjah after being bundled out for 122 in the final.
•  It was then a very irritating period of repeatedly succumbing to Pakistan which was growing in stature under the leadership of Imran who was keeping that volatile pack together (without succumbing to any commercial temptations and playing true to their potential).

It was particularly during this ascendancy of Pakistan under Imran that it was increasingly stifling to witness loss after loss especially in pressure games. Sunil Gavaskar’s calming presence was soon to be taken away in tests and Kapil was also getting into his twilight and was no longer the tear away rookie he was when he made his debut and who could plunge a hot knife into the heart of Pakistan’s defense (all part of cricketing folk lore that I was fed on).

Srikanth and Mohinder were the most unsung and equally un reliable heroes and Vengsarkar and Shastri epitomized narcissist tendencies. The initial euphoria of Azhar’s heroics was dying down and his feet of clay were being slowly un earthed. Sidhu was at best the equivalent of Sandhu in the batting department. 

A dim light at the end of the tunnel was no doubt being offered by the classy Sanjay Manjrekar but he was also more of test match material without the all round flavor that can make us world champions in ODI again.

It is when the spirit of the Indian fan was sagging that Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar entered the fray as a baby faced cherubic boy. 

As famed as the parable that David and Goliath was. Its message never registered with me till I saw Sachin take a bouncer of Waqar on his nose and defiantly even refused any help from all Pakistani fielders crowding in on him. 

The way he continued his innings that day without being cowed down by brute pace and then even scoring a brilliant 50 in one of the tests and then going on to whack the daylights out of Abdul Quadir (be as it may in a promotional one day) sent mine and many a heart soaring into un chartered territories of happiness.

From that instant to this, the result of India winning or losing did not matter as much as Sachin being in the winning or losing side of a battle. To me the world of cricket was Sachin. I could not care about the status of the match once his influence on that particular game was over.

Did he do well or not do well, was all that mattered to me.

In fact when India won the World cup in 2011, I was elated doubly because Sachin was on the winning side. I was no doubt additionally happy because he would be happy that day.

Why this inexplicable identification with him is something I have myself wondered.

He has brought me pure cricketing joy that none of my past cricketing heroes have ever come even close to. Even among the present crop I do not see anyone coming close to what Sachin produced as internal joy.

Not just his game and its sheer beauty and poise. It is the beauty and grace with which he has played it in the true spirit of the sport originally as founded by the British. Not a single show of dissent or tantrum throughout his 24 year illustrious career, even in the face of jaw dropping dubious lbw dismissals. 

Once when he was on 99 and adjudged LBW by none other than Simon Toufel, Sachin left the middle without a single emotion and minutes later after watching the giant screen Simon Toufel was shown to be shaking his head sideways in a very repenting tone as the ball hit Sachin way above the stump. Such was the decorum observed by this man that he is the ideal role model for every budding cricketer to follow.

Many people say he should have retired along with the 2011 World Cup. In a way, it took us 24 years of not being world champions (we were world champions from 1983 to 1987) to regain it and that roughly is the span of Sachin’s cricketing career and maybe it was pre-ordained to end with such a parallel.

I sincerely take this opportunity to thank Sachin not just for giving the privilege to be his fan and enjoy his game, but for also making it easy for someone so deeply impacted by his game, to come to terms with his retirement in stages.

I shudder to think what might have moved inside of me were he to announce this suddenly at the end of a match I viewed not knowing that I am going to be seeing him play for the last time in an official match.

I salute you Sachin for you are such a rare combination of talent, humility, poise, grace and charm. 

You are a true son of the soil. 

A true Bharat Ratna.

It is a privilege to be your fan and an honor to be your fellow country man